It was another bright and sunny day in beautiful Riviera Maya, Mexico. A large number of spectators lurked around the beach today in hopes of catching a glimpse of all the exciting kiteboarding action. Racers made their way to the beach early this morning for the skippers meeting.

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Competitors had a little extra time to fine tune their equipment and make last minute preparations before spurting out onto the water. A total of five course races were held today under light but unstable and gusty winds averaging 10-12 knots with a scorching air temperature of 30 degrees Celsius.

Racers pumped up their largest kites and dashed off to the start line for what would be the first race of the Racing Kiteboard World Tour & Freestyle Pro in Riviera Maya, Mexico.

It was a great race day for California sunny boy, John Heineken (Ozone, USA). Heineken took first place in three races of five today, earning him the top position on the scoring chart. He managed to come in second place in the second race and ran into a bit of trouble during the fourth race, which was the cause for him to not finish.

French rider Olivier Dansin (North, FRA) had a couple of great runs today, finishing first as well as second in two races today followed by a third position in the third race. Blazej Ozog (North, POL) was amongst the top scoring racers today taking on second place in one race today. Ozog is part of the North production class team who are on fire this year with their great racing equipment.

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An impressive debut for newcomer to the PKRA World Tour Racing lineup is Riccardo Leccese (Ozone, COL) from Columbia. Leccese represented his country proudly today by taking second place in one race today as well as two third place positions. Leccese ran into some technical difficulties with his gear during the final two races today however this unforeseen incident did not affect his overall performance.

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In the women’s racing division all three women fought strategically for first place. French rider Caroline Adrien (Cabrinha, FRA) made a couple errors during the first two races of the day, which set her back to the overall second position. Melissa Gil (Cabrinha, USA) had a spectacular run today taking on first place in the first two races followed by three second place finishes. Gil who has been competing competitively for some time has proved today that her skills and determination could find her taking an event title here in Mexico. Spanish rider Nuria Goma (Liquid Force, ESP) ran a tight course today enabling her second place in the first two races of the day followed by three third place positions in the final three races of the day.

An impressive debut for newcomer to the PKRA World Tour Racing lineup is Riccardo Leccese (Ozone, COL) from Columbia. Leccese represented his country proudly today by taking second place in one race today as well as two third place positions. Leccese ran into some technical difficulties with his gear during the final two races today however this unforeseen incident did not affect his overall performance

My cousin Riccardo is rocking the course

hope he can stay in the top 3. It would be a first podium finish at his second participation in a pkra event. last year he went to the pkra argentina.

That's a good photo of a very relaxed looking Johnny Heiniken, with his front foot in the strap and his rear foot just pushing on the rail, so presumably he is heading upwind.
Nice to see his sheeting method as well - its obviously working, judging by his results.

The North 69 cm tri-fin production board seems to be competitive, and looks good.

Looks like Farley is rocking the all white kites. They look tight and stable in the air. What is with the single all black panels? Is that the new north design for this year? Nice to see Dimitri rocking the big blue infinity.

Nice Job Rikki (Riccardo Leccese) on the Aguera Production CR 59 from last year! I am very impressed with your racing! You will have to get you one of the new models when they arrive (CR 64 or the CR 69).
How come you are not racing Production Class ?
AA

Well it was very difficult to me to keep my third position with such great equipment around, my production Cr59 2010 is performing at his top, i found its best performing changing and trainning lot of fins.
Even if had a great start and been at leading of the race with Jonh, Dansin and Julien, after the second lap was obiously how them boards were porforming Upwind, and was manly were i lost my positions, but i gave the fight hitting good results such some 3rd and 2nd positions keeping my average between 3rd and 5th place, This was enought to make most of the final races more competitive.
I want to clear that i was racing on the production Cr59 from last year, but i signed on the Custom class cuz i might race the upcomming events with a custom board,(i dont want to loose the IKA points signing in a dferent class) So if i were signed in the Production Class the podium would had to be diferennt with an Cr59 from AA at the second place over some 2011 Productions boards.

So i think this makes Alex happy !!
I gonna keep my hard and focus trainning i want really bad to be at the podium !! hope to bring some news later about comps